Felt Like Knitting

Ten on Tuesday: 10 Mittens/Mitts I Want to Knit

This is a perfect topic for me right now!  I have several pairs of fingerless mitts on my Christmas knitting list.  Not in any particular order...

Striped Fingerless Gloves

Prickly

Fable Fingerless Mitts

Vancouver Fog

Fallberry Mitts

Black Lodge Mitts

Blue King Cabled Mitts

Scotland Yard Mitts

Quilted Lattice Mitts

One Cable Mitts

Share your mitt/mitten selections at caroleknits.net!

Ten on Tuesday: 10 Things on My Mind Right Now

1.  Emma - She is always on my mind.  I saw her for lunch and a movie last weekend and that was a nice treat.

2.  Jury duty - I have jury duty this week.  I am very grateful that our country has a system where we have access to jury trials.  Jury duty isn't an exciting prospect for most people, but knowing that it helps the system to work makes any inconvenience more bearable.  And yesterday was like a mini vacation - I knitted, talked most of the day, had lunch with two lovely ladies I met, and I didn't have to worry about all the other things I would have been doing at home.  I have today off so it's back to "work."

3.  Work - Speaking of work, that's on my mind a lot, too.  The best guess I have for a second career right now is web design.  I have a lot more to learn before I decide, but that's where I'm leaning.  Although I think graphic design is more important.  Anyone can learn to make a website, but it won't look good without great graphics.  If I would do web design for churches, non-profits and small businesses, they wouldn't have the funds to pay for a graphic artist.  Being able to do both would be great. 

4.  The election - This is probably on everybody's mind.  I'm joining my mom in praying that God will put the candidate he wants into office.  That's pretty interesting since my mom and I usually have opposite votes.  :)  This morning I noticed this on my CNN app:  Fun Election Facts.  Isn't that an oxymoron?

5.  My family - My mom is having surgery soon and my dad isn't doing that great.  It seems like he's given up.  One of my brothers has an abscess in his sinuses and another has kidney stones.  But my third brother is doing great!  He and his wife are on a weight loss program through their local hospital and they're losing a ton of weight.  I'm so proud of them both!

6.  Photography - I need to take the time to learn to take better photos.  Way, way back I took a class and learned a lot, but I've forgotten most of it now.

7.  Christmas - Last weekend Emma and I heard Christmas music in Old Navy and many places already have decorations up.  I can understand having Christmas stuff on the shelves, especially for craft stores.  But do we need decorations and music already?!  It's like retailers and the decoration people forget about Thanksgiving.  I love fall and wouldn't mind at least a few more weeks of it.  I saw this funny cartoon on Facebook the other day.  (I wish I could have found the original source.)

8.  Thanksgiving - Ah, Thanksgiving - my favorite holiday!  I've been inviting people, but now it's time to figure out the details.   

9.  Weight loss - I need to be losing weight, but I'm just not motivated.  :(  I have plenty of things that should get me motivated - keeping diabetes away, helping my knee and my back, fitting into my clothes instead of buying the next size up.  If I want to be a healthy, active senior citizen later, I need to do something about this now.

10.  My back - My back usually feels pretty good these days, but every day I can tell that I'm injured.  That leaves me with big questions about needing surgery someday, pain management, what will I be able to do or not do in my life?  It feels like a constant cloud hanging over me.  I know I am so blessed to not be hurt worse and to be able to manage the pain with Motrin.  It's just something that's there that I wish wasn't, you know?

Share your good, bad, funny or serious thoughts with your fellow bloggers over at Carole's.

Whirlwind

Hi!  There is so much going on in my life write now.  The past few months have been a time of self-discovery for me.  And I'm so far behind on my blog reading that I have no idea what any of you are up to!  Maybe I should remedy that this weekend.

One of the biggest things is the website that I'm creating for Emma's high school drama group.  I started that last spring then took a long break from it.  We now have the goal of starting it on November 1 - which we missed.  But we are so close!  The graphic artist has to finish up the new logo and I'm troubleshooting a few things and changing our email service to Google Apps (I hope!).  After it's up and running, we'll add phase two elements like more photos, putting in articles we've skipped for now, getting the summer camp registration form up, etc.  For anyone who needs to develop a website, I can recommend using Joomla! to do it.  I hope I can share the site with you soon.

Another great thing is that I signed up to take Project Real Life with Becky Higgins through Big Picture Classes.  I never paid much attention to the Project Life scrapbooking system, but I knew some of my friends were enjoying using it.  The great thing about Project Real Life is the extra stuff in the class.  Each week has a theme and the themes have activities associated with them.  These activities make you think about your priorities and I'm reprioritizing some things in my life.  I've learned that I need to take more (and better!) photos and that my iPhone isn't taking the best photos if I want to use them in scrapbooking.

Do you use Photoshop Elements?  I downloaded the trial version and I've played around with it a bit.  I downloaded it to be able to use the Christmas newsletter template I bought.  I'd better get to that before my trial expires!  It's also helpful for editing photos for the website.  I just signed up for another online class called Two Views.  By the end of the two week workshop, I'll have an 8x8 album that contains pictures and journaling about how I see things and how Emma sees things.  It's so great that she agreed to be the second person in my album!  This class will be a great way to learn more about digital scrapbooking and using Photoshop Elements.  There is still time to sign up if you're interested.

On a different level, I've been reading my Bible more and doing a Bible study called Unglued.  It's about not letting our raw emotions rule our lives.  So far I've learned that I get angry and raise my voice when I feel accused or demeaned.  But the study is helping me voice my feelings and what's bothering me instead of letting my feelings take control.

Whew - that's a lot!  There is more (like knitting), but I think I've written enough for tonight.  I hope to catch up with you soon.  I miss hearing what's been going on in your lives!